The Book of Accidents

By: Chuck Wendig

Narrated by: Xe Sands, George Newbern

Brought to you by Penguin.

A family returns to their hometown - and to the dark past that haunts them still - in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers

When Nate's father dies, he leaves behind a final gift for his son: his childhood home. Married now, Nate decides to move in with his wife, Maddie, and their son, Oliver, seeking peace from the chaos of the city.

But it doesn't take long before things get strange in the night and even stranger by day.

Because Nate was a child being abused by his father, and has never told his family. Because Maddie was a little girl who saw something she shouldn't have. Because something sinister, something hungry, walks in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of this town in rural Pennsylvania...

And now, what happened all those years ago is happening again, and this time, it is happening to Oliver. When he meets a strange boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic, he has no idea that what comes next will put his family at the heart of a battle of good versus evil.

© Chuck Wendig 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critic reviews

Wendig combines cosmic horror and human heroism with his continuing theme of the traumatic effect of abusive relationships handed down from father to son; this is a rich, rewarding tale. (Lisa Tuttle)

This is a full-blooded rural haunted house chiller with something for everyone: ghosts, doppelgängers, numerology, parallel worlds, demons and more.

The dread, the scope, the pacing, the turns-I haven't felt all this so intensely since The Shining.

Move over King, Chuck Wendig is the new voice of modern American horror . . . a masterwork

Universally horrifying and viscerally intimate, Wendig brilliantly uses The Book of Accidents to explore a painful truth: in the end, we all haunt ourselves.

What follows is a gruesome, compelling, bloody yarn complete with serial killer, mysterious landscape of shifting stones, abandoned mines and an interdimensional twist that turns the suspense up to 11 and beyond. Goodness prevails, but what a ride.

Unforgettable, terrifying dose of top-flight horror that hits on our most basic, core fears. The Book of Accidents chills you to the bone while still warming your heart.

A propulsive thriller that is as funny as it is frightening, clever as it is uncanny, tender as it is terrifying.

In the tradition of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, Wendig views the cosmic and terrifying through the lens of the domestic, anchoring his visions of the sublime in the grit of the familiar

Sweeping yet intimate, multi-layered and big-hearted, this is a novel to sink deeply into

Exceptional story

I have loved Chuck's books for a long time but this has probably been my favorite so far.
Expertly written, and I beautifully narrated and a story and makes you think and leaves you wanting more without it needing to supply more.

wow

This book is a ride. If you like Chuck's other books you will not be disappointed. It is bloody and beautiful and foul-mouthed. Highly, highly recommend. I cried and laughed out loud. Wonderfully done, Chuck, you brilliant human. The narration was also perfect. Well done, everyone.